BF 



• ... . , ....,, ; . -: .. 







Class BElh± 

Book _yHH 

Copyright^? 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/mindbodymetaphysOOmorr 



MIND AND BODY 



A METAPHYSICAL TREATISE 



BY 



JEAN MORRISEY 




3 3 > , > 

) ) ) 

) > I 

) , ) ) 3 1 



"Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger 
than any material force; that thoughts rule the world." 



THE SCIENCE PUBLISHING CO,, 

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 

I903. 



t « 



< 
< ' ( 

I 



* , « 
e * « * 

• • «► 
< < t I * 






^ 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

JUN 20 1903 

^ Copyright Entry 
^CLASS CU XXc. No, 

xd r : QQPY g, 



COPYRIGHTED IQO3 BY 
THE SCIENCE PUBLISHING COMPANY. 









CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface 5 

The Failure of Old Remedies . , 7 

The Finite Mind and the Body 14 

A Practical Remedy 25 

Interlocutory 31 

The Higher Life 35 

Suggestions For Daily Practice 49 

Some Helpful Hints 62 

Selected Poems . 71. 



PREFACE. 



"The greatest good any man can do is to inspire a 
love for the higher life in the mind of another." 

The purpose of this little volume is two- 
fold. While furnishing a ready remedy for a 
very prevalent affliction, it is the aim of the au- 
thor, through it > to attract the attention of 
many to the "higher life," and the great pos- 
sibilities almost within easy reach, who would 
refuse any attention whatever to metaphysics 
did they not offer ready relief to some physi- 
cal affliction, without moral requirement. 
There are thousands who are satisfied that the 
mind somewhat controls the body, who are 
not capable of comprehending or would not 
try to comprehend the significance of mind 
in its most general sense. Having, however, 
been led to some understanding of the relation 
of mind to body, their interest in the subject 
may thus be awakened, and may lead them to 
a study of the higher qualities of the mind, 
and of its relation to mankind, both in general 



O PREFACE 

and particular. Of course the application of 
mind as herein directed for the relief of a pe- 
culiar affliction is not supposed by the author 
to be scientific, for he holds that nothing can 
be truly scientific short of perfection, and that 
perfection can not be thought of in connection 
with the finite mind. However, in this in- 
stance, it will serve a present purpose until the 
higher mind is attained to, just as once did 
methods now obsolete, in the outer world, un- 
til more improved ones were conceived and 
brought into use. 

"Progress is the law of life. 
Man is not man as yet.'-' 

With this idea in mind, and without any at- 
tempt at literary effect, the author offers the 
book as a morsel of the one great Truth, 



MIND AND BODY, 



CHAPTER I. 

THE FAILURE OF OLD REMEDIES. 

Constipation is one of the most dreadful 
scourges of the age. It has caused more an- 
noyance, suffering and general ill health than 
probably any other disease that flesh is heir 
to. The victim of this distressing affliction is 
seldom at peace with either himself or the 
world about him, and mentally and physically, 
he is each day wearing away. The reason is 
not difficult to understand. The body, like to 
a machine most intricate and delicate in its 
construction, if allowed to clog at any point, 
can no more perform its functions properly 
than can the clogged machine, and as a result, 
not only one part of the body is incapacitated, 
but the whole body. For this reason, a consti- 
pated person is exhausting strength and vitali- 
ty daily in endeavoring to keep the human ma- 



8 MIND AND BODY 

chine in action, and in correspondence with its 
environment. The natural result is a general 
collapse of the whole system in time. This is 
preceded by a sallow complexion, premature 
wrinkles, gray and scanty hair, and, what is 
worse than all, an almost constant ill-temper. 
Thousands of different prescriptions have been 
furnished by the medical profession for relief, 
while drug stores every day deal out all sorts 
of pills and pellets, but in vain. The affliction 
today is more pronounced than ever, and it 
will continue its ravages so long as the remedy 
is sought from without. 

My purpose in this is to unfold a new and 
entirely different remedy from those which 
have been generally resorted to, a remedy 
which every person unconsciously possesses, 
and which is certain in its effects if faithfully 
applied. 

Before proceeding to do so, however, I 
wish to direct attention to something that 
the world is just beginning to awaken to,, 
for in a brief discussion of this "something" I 
hope to make my readers behold a truth, and 
thereby readily understand why the remedy 



, 



THE FAILURE OF OLD REMEDIES g 

here offered should and will meet their require- 
ments. The general faith in medicine has 
been of a blind sort, and the afflicted have been 
ready to swallow almost anything which the 
doctors prescribed, or which somebody adver- 
tised, with no questions asked. • Blind faith 
may sometimes lead us over stubborn places, 
but faith through understanding makes ad- 
vance easy and certain. 

Health has been the one thing most sought 
for in all ages, and the one thing oftenest 
sought for in vain. The clammy hand of dis- 
ease holds the human family as firmly in its 
grasp today as it ever did, and without respect 
to person or position, drags the rich and the 
poor, the high and the lowly, alike to untimely 
graves. Science has explored the heavens and 
mapped out the stellar system, measured the 
distance to the sun, and moon, and plannets, 
traced the course of the latter, and on the earth 
below has been the hand that has beckoned on 
the march of civilization with its wonderful 
achievements. But that little atom of dust, 
that intricate piece of earthy mechanism, 
known as the human body, has ever defied 



IO MIND AND BODY 

science to ferret out the mystery of its exist- 
ence and the problem of its perfection. 
. From the days of Pythagoras to, Hippo- 
crates, and from Hippocrates to the present 
time, medicine and the art of healing have been 
studied and tested, and made the subjects of 
experiment, but with what slight success, con- 
ditions now bare to our eyes give only too 
touching evidence. In surgery there has been 
marked advancement, but in medicine and the 
discovery of disease germs, there have been 
no appreciable results. Not only have the old 
types of disease continued their ravages, but 
new ones have been developed, baffling, con- 
fusing and confounding more than ever those 
who have in materia me die a sought the mastery 
of human ills. 

And in spite of all this it is a fact that the 
medical profession has little patience with 
those who radically differ with it or dare to 
question the wisdom of its investigations. 
Indeed, so pronounced and often unreasonable 
is its attitude in this respect, that one might 
be forgiven for believing it had prejudices it 
was not willing to sacrifice, even in the inter- 



THE FAILURE OF OLD REMEDIES 1 1 

ests of science and suffering humanity. The 
class known as mental scientists and metaphy- 
sicians it scorns as made up of cranks and 
evil doers who should be eliminated from the 
field of practice without either hearing or ar- 
gument. 

Nevertheless, until the eye of science is 
turned in another direction, for the cause of 
bodily affliction, conditions can never improve, 
and they must continue to grow ever more ag- 
gravating. 

For a long time the theory of spontaneous 
generation, or life springing from dead matter, 
was accepted by physiologists ; but the fallacy 
of such a theory has been exposed by the re- 
sults of deeper thought and investigation. Life 
causation is as deep a mystery to natural phi- 
lpsophy as it ever was. So is disease causa- 
tion to materia medica, and the latter, like the 
former, will in the end be obliged to give up a 
long cherished delusion. 

When philosophy took to seeking in the 
midst of death for the problem of life, it 
was driven into desperate straits, and showed 
how dense was its materiality. What we 



12 MIND AND BODY 

need to do is to turn our thoughts from matter 
to mind, and begin studying from a new basis. 
And this scientists are now beginning, to do. 
Mankind is awakening to a new old truth. The 
dawn of another day is at hand, after a long 
night in the shadow of materiality. Golden 
beams of truth are kissing the hilltops again, 
and trumpet notes of morn are arousing the 
tired dreamers to a reign of health and rest. 
Belief in the power of matter is fading, and un- 
derstanding of the power of mind over all 
things material is growing. 

It is the relation of mind to body and the 
supremacy of mind over matter to which I 
wish to call your attention. To deal with the 
subject fully, however, would require an ex- 
tensive treatise on metaphysics, for one point 
calls forth another, and before a thorough dis- 
cussion of all the points involved could illus- 
trate fully their relation to each other, a 
large volume would be written. As there are 
already many excellent works upon the sub- 
ject, and as this little book is meant more as 
a help than a study, I will aim here to merely 
impress upon my readers certain truths, by 



THE FAILURE OF OLD REMEDIES 1 3 

brief reference to facts so palpably evident in 
their relation to the case, that even those who 
are dullest of comprehension must easily see 
and understand. 



14 MIND AND BODY 



CHAPTER II. 

THE FINITE MIND AND THE BODY. 

"For of the soule the bodie forme doth take ; 
For sonle is forme, and doth the bodie make." 

The rule of the finite mind is a law of the 
flesh, acting upon and influencing the body. 
The body, in reality, never suffers ; it is this 
finite mind, so closely related to the body that 
we cannot distinguish its individuality, which 
is the source of appetite, pleasure, pain and all 
the passions. Even the medical profession now 
faintly admits that the mind somewhat affects 
the body. It would be fatal to its practice to 
make this affirmation clear and strong; but 
in this small concession already made, it has 
virtually destroyed its former foundation of 
reasoning ; for if the mind affects the body, 
the body cannot affect the mind. In the order 
of creation there are no conflicting laws, and 
man is a part of creation. To believe that the 
mind controls the body in one instance and 
that the body controls the mind in another, is 



THE FINITE MIND AND THE BODY I'5 

so utterly unscientific as to be unreasonable to 
any thinking person. 

The mind is the man, and in the degree 
that mind expands and awakens to higher con- 
sciousness, the ills and appetites of the flesh 
diminish. The finite mind, or law of the flesh, 
is in this way outgrown, and that which is 
termed the higher mind, or higher self, rules. 
When a person attains to this plane, he is con- 
scious of his existence independently of the 
body, and the latter henceforth has little sig- 
nificance to him. 

But I will confine myself in these first pages 
to the finite mind or physical mind, or mortal 
mind, which terms all have the same meaning, 
and leave discussion of the higher mind or self 
entirely to the later chapters of the book. 

. A question that now naturally presents it- 
self is : In what manner does mind act upon 
and influence the body? 

Mind acts through the agency of thought. 
Thoughts are creatures of the mind. The mind 
is the source of thought force, and the cranium 
is the seat of central power, from which the 
body, as a whole, is governed, and directed, 



l6 MIND AND BODY 

with the aid of the brain and the nervous sys- 
tem. The brain cannot act without thought, 
any more than can a telegraph instrument 
work without an operator; and as messages 
sent out from this instrument over a system of 
wires spring from a source independent of the 
instrument, so do thoughts sent out over the 
nervous system spring from a source independ- 
ent of the brain. 

As an illustration : 

Washington, D. C, is the seat of our gov- 
ernment. From there dispatches, messages, 
etc, are sent to all parts of the country direct- 
ing governmental affairs. These messages are 
sent through the aid of conveniences, the tele- 
graph, mail service, etc., created because of the 
demand for them, and extending throughout 
the country; and they are more or less active 
according to the degree or extent of business 
being transacted over them. Suspension or 
disorder at Washington means suspension or 
disorder throughout the national possessions. 

So it is with man or mind. He is the gov- 
ernment, the power behind the throne; the 
body his possession, but, in a higher sense, a 



THE FINITE MIND AND THE BODY I J 

means to an end of mind's attainment. Nerves 
from all parts of the body center at the brain, 
which receives thoughts or messages, and 
transmits them over the nervous system to dif- 
ferent parts of the body as directed by mind. 
The inner parts of the body, however, such as 
the digestive organs, heart, lungs, etc., per- 
form their several functions r through the direc- 
tion of what is termed the sub-conscious 
mind. This sub-conscious mind is that which 
acts through force of habit. For instance, a 
pianist does not consciously direct his fingers 
to the various keys in producing harmony; 
they go under direction of a sub-consciousness, 
which, in turn, means stored-up consciousness. 
It w r ould be awkward for a pianist to attempt 
to consciously direct his fingers always to the 
proper keys, just as it would be awkward for 
a person to attempt habitually to consciously 
direct food to the mouth. 

To claim that the body controls the mind 
is like saying that a government is controlled 
by its possessions, its telegraph system, rail- 
roads, currency, etc. The latter are merely 
conveniences of the government, or the people, 



l8 MIND AND BODY 

and their utility value is increased and im- 
proved as necessity demands, and intelligence 
awakens sufficiently to meet the demand. 

The body's complexity, delicacy and gen- 
eral form of convenience, as suited to our time, 
are the result of the demand for better service 
from it, following awakening intelligence as 
to surrounding conditions and higher possibil- 
ities. Just as wireless telegraphy is now dis- 
placing the older and more material system, 
so will a much higher consciousness upon the 
part of man render unnecessary his nervous 
system, the whole material expression, or 
means to an end, in time disappearing. In 
other words, the body having served its pur- 
pose, its usefulness being outgrown, and no 
longer needed by the mind to assist the latter 
to higher attainment, it is laid aside, just as are 
other forms and conveniences in the world 
about us, upon the advent of more improved 
ones. 

When the relation of mind to body is un- 
derstood, it will be seen how reasonable is 
telepathy, and how certain is it to be practi- 
cally effective in the very near future. A* our 



THE FINITE MIND AND THE BODY 19 

nerves or sensibilities become finer, they be- 
come more impressionable to thought force, 
and other people's thoughts affect us as well 
as our own. The atmosphere is a great ocean 
of thought waves, and these waves are more or 
less outwardly expressed in the degree that 
they are first inwardly received by individuals, 
and they can be so received only through the 
nervous system. I doubt if there is any one 
who will read these pages who has not felt at 
some time or other the influence of another's 
thoughts. 

This explains the success of metaphysicians 
in the treatment of disease; and under the cir- 
cumstances it must be very plain that mental 
treatment is the only scientific method of heal- 
ing bodily afflictions. This treatment is al- 
ways most effective when the patient is in a 
receptive state, that is, when he is in absolute 
peace of mind, and his nervous system is free 
from the influence of his own thoughts, there- 
by allowing the healer complete control. 

This also accounts for the frequent epidem-- 
ics of one sort or another, and as well the 
crazes, fads and fashions that are ever swaying 



20 MIND AND BODY 

mankind and womankind. 

As an illustration of how thought indirectly 
affects the body, let us take, for instance, the 
foreigner who emigrates to America. The 
climate of our northern states is much the same 
as that of Norway, yet we find that the aver- 
age Norwegian, in the course of a few years, 
especially among those who take up their resi- 
dence in the cities, is so entirely changed in 
appearance that it would scarcely be too much 
to say that all that remains of his former self 
is his name. This is also true of the average 
farmer boy ; a few years in the city makes him 
over into a new person. It must be readily 
seen that neither climatic conditions nor brain 
lobes have anything to do in this transforma- 
tion. The climate is the same, and what could 
move the brain lobes to such strange issues all 
at once? 

It is thought which makes active the brain 
and not the brain which produces thoughts. 
This change in the Norwegian and in the far- 
mer boy is first accounted for through change 
of environment. They come among a different 
class of people, and experience changed condi- 



THE FINITE MIND AND THE BCDY 21 

tions. The order is so wholly new to them 
that they take on impressions rapidly, and 
these impressions express themselves out- 
wardly in the person and manners of the sub- 
ject. Among* the Slavs, Italians and Hunga- 
rians, and in fact, any of the so-called peasantry 
of the Latin countries, who emigrate to Amer- 
ica, there is little or no change in outward ex- 
pression for the reason that they are a class 
who do little thinking, take on few impres- 
sions, and take no interest in our advanced 
ideas. 

As another illustration : Let us take, for 
instance, a man of intelligence, refinement and 
financial standing. He suffers, let us say, the 
loss of an only son, and shortly after, death 
again claims his only daughter. The blow is 
an hard one, and to his friends he seems hardly 
his former self. Later, financial difficulties 
beset him, and those of his class, who once 
cherished his company, now pass him by with 
scarcely a word. The relentless hand of 
adversity seems to be pressing down on 
him harder and harder, and he broods con- 
tinually over his losses. As in a thous- 



22 MIND AND BODY 

and instances, one or more of which we all 
can recall, his life mate is stricken down, 
and his last remnant of property is swallowed 
up by creditors. Some morning later, while 
lpoking over the daily paper, we read how a 
man was found wandering aimlessly about the 
streets, and was taken into custody by an of- 
ficer. He labors under such and such an hal- 
lucination, the paper states, and will probably 
be tried for insanity. The trial takes place and 
consists in a series of questions by the probate 
judge, or an attorney, and an examination by 
a physician of recognized authority on insan- 
ity. The unfortunate man may succeed in 
rallying some of his old-time self, and thus ap- 
pear quite rational; but the physician has dis- 
covered that at a certain spot in the cranium 
there is. an enlargement, an unnatural growth 
or bump, which, according to human 
physiology, renders its victim irresponsible. 
He is consequently committed to the state in- 
sane asylum. And this is the one-time intel- 
ligent, refined and wealthy member of society. 
The question now is, did the bump cause 
the man's mental derangement, or did his con- 



A PRACTICAL REMEDY 23 

tinual broodings over his misfortunes cause 
the bump? 

Thus do we find thoughts expressing, cre- 
ating and constructing, slowly or rapidly, di- 
rectly or indirectly, according to their nature 
or quality. To believe that the bump caused 
the man's mental aberration is certainly as 
erroneous as to suppose that the brain lobes 
caused the changed appearance of the Norwe- 
gian or the farmer boy. 

Different kinds of thought produce different 
effects, and a conglomeration of evil thoughts 
produces new types of diseases and strange 
effects. The latter the medical profession her- 
alds as new discoveries, and proceeds first to 
christen them with high sounding names, and 
next to seek out the germ. 

The daily newspaper is the biggest disease 
germ to be dealt with. Its publication broad- 
cast of diseases, suicides and all sorts of mor- 
bid crimes, is doing more to spread the gloom 
of sickness and sorrow than all the microbes 
that have ever been or will ever be discovered. 

Countless instances might be cited to show 
the effect of mind upon body, in varying de- 



24 MIND AND BODY 

grees, but upon the other hand, who has ever 
heard of the body suffering, exulting or in any 
way acting separately from the mind? 

It would seem that with the long standing 
evidences and the now rapidly accumulating 
demonstrations of mind power, the people, as 
a whole, should be more alive to its status ; 
and the fact that they are not can only be ac- 
counted for by the deep-seated belief that mat- 
ter gives life. 

In the later chapters of this book I will take 
up the subject again for discussion from a 
higher and more scientific standpoint. But 
as the idea in these first pages is chiefly to im- 
press upon the readerthe relation of the mind 
to the body and its power or influence, I will 
refrain from entering any deeper here into its 
mysteries. 

We will now to the application . 



A PRACTICAL REMEDY 25 



CHAPTER III. 

A PRACTICAL REMEDY; 

Go to your room, or place yourself where 
you will be alone and free from interruption. 
Assume a restful position in an easy chair. 
Center your attention on a spot in the region 
of your abdomen, and keep it there with in- 
tensity and without wavering. Soon you will 
feel a warming up at that point, and gradually 
there will also appear before your mind's eye 
a shimmering light. Hold your mind firm, and 
these will continue to grow and spread until 
a current is felt throughout your entire body. 
When it has gotten under way and has con- 
tinued for a minute, divert your attention from 
it and it will die out. Upon retiring at night 
knead the abdomen gently. This concentration 
of mind upon the selected spot may consume 
between twenty and thirty minutes. 



26 MIND AND BODY 

On the following day, if you have been very 
constipated, the passages may be very frequent 
and may continue so for even a week or ten 
days, but you will not be weakened by them, 
as you would be by having taken a strong pur- 
gative, and gradually the bowels will resume 
their normal active state. This will also have 
the effect of cleansing the kidneys and freeing 
your system otherwise from impurities. This 
treatment is simply a strong application of 
thought force to the body, arousing and setting 
into action the dormant parts. If you are not 
successful in arousing action upon the first at- 
tempt, it will be because your concentration 
was weak. Renew the treatment the follow- 
ing day. Even in the most obstinate cases it 
should not require more than a few applica- 
tions. 

Do not, however, make a practice of cen- 
tering your attention on any one part of your 
body, as such a course has a tendency to pro- 
duce abnormal conditions. Never center your' 
thoughts on any of the vital organs. As explain- 



A PRACTICAL REMEDY 2*] 

ed before, finite mind is related to the physical, 
and its power can be made destructive as well 
as constructive. Electricity will kill human 
beings as well as carry them, but it is, never- 
theless, a valuable agent at present. Later it 
will give way to something more practical, and 
so will this finite mind in time give place to a 
higher mind. 

As medicine is matter, its effect upon mat- 
ter is limited to its chemicalizing power, and 
that power must cease when the matter which 
it chemicalizes has passed off. For the same 
reason all sorts of purgatives give only tem- 
porary relief. This is also why they leave 
the patient in a more distressed condition than 
before; for their chemical properties not only 
affect the waste matter, but also irritate the 
stomach as well as cast out a great deal of the 
food which would otherwise be properly di- 
gested and go toward building up the tissues. 



THE HIGHER LIFE. 



Life Eternal is a problem which must 
be worked out by the Golden Rule. 



INTERLOCUTORY 3 1 



INTERLOCUTORY. 

"The weariest and most loathed worldly life 
That age, ache, penury and imprisonment 
Can lay on nature, is a paradise 
To what we fear of death." 

— Shakespeake. 

It is generally safe for a person to think as 
he pleases regarding a God, heaven and the 
hereafter, providing, always, that he doesn't 
think too loud. But no matter how exalted 
and pure his idea of God may be, no matter 
how sublime and beautiful his thoughts of 
heaven, and no matter how logical his con- 
ception of the hereafter, if he dares to put 
the same into words, he runs a great risk of 
making himself heartily disliked by certain 
classes. 

Ritualistic form and ceremony have for 
centuries smothered spirit and truth; precept 
without practice has been too much the rule. 
The author, of this little book,, while acknowl- 
edging good in each of the prevailing creeds, 
or churches, believes that the essence of the 



3 2 MIND AND BODY 

true religion is contained in the Golden Rule. 
This is the Master's command: 

"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would 
that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them: for this is the law and the' prophets." 

It seems strangely sad that humanity 
should tread its path here on earth so fearful 
of the inevitable end. Yet nothing strikes as 
much terror into the average heart as the 
thought of death when brought face to face 
< with it. It is, of course, mystery that lends 
so much superstititious awe to this exit we 
call death. Our fears are always according 
to the nature of our beliefs, and the beliefs re- 
garding the hereafter are so varied that if com- 
piled they would make interesting , yet ludi- 
crous reading. And, strange to say, nearly all 
of us hold our beliefs in this regard as some- 
thing sacred. 

If there is any one thing more than another 
which the author would like to do for 
humanity, it is to eradicate fear and worry 
from its heart, so that love and peace might 
enter therein; and, while he can hardlyexpect 
that all herein written will be read by the 



INTERLOCUTORY 33 

firmly orthodox believer, without a shade of 
annoyance, it is his hope that all who peruse 
these pages will find, if not views which en- 
tirely co-harmonize with their own, much that 
can be conscientiously accepted by them, and 
that, upon the whole, the book will be received 
with the same cordial spirit in which it is of- 
fered. 



34 MIND AND BODY 



"Festus. Whence are we ! 

"Luniel. Child of the royal blood of man redeemed, 
The starry strain of spirit, thence we are. 
This, therefore, be thy future and thy fate. 
As water putrified and purified, 
Seven times by turns, will never more corrupt, 
So thou and thine whole race, all change endured, 
Through doubt, sin, knowledge, faith, love, power and 

bliss, 
Shall practice every note of Being's scale, 
Till the whole orb co-harmonize with heaven 
And pure imperial peace rule all below; — 
Till star by star, these bright and sacred seats, 
Whose ancestry of sempiternal suns 
Comes of the vast and universal void, 
And in whose lineage of light yon earth 
Seems but a new possession scarcely worth 
Accepting or rejecting, shall at last 
Into primordial nothingness relapse; 
And man, the universal son of God, 
Who occupied in time those starry spheres, 
Regenerate and redeemed shall live for aye, 
Made one with Deity ; all evil gone. 
Dispersed as by a thunderclap of light." 

— Bailey. 



THE HIGHER LIFE 



35 



CHAPTER I. 

THE HIGHER LIFE. 

"Every man takes care that his neighbor shall not 
cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to take care 
that he do not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well. 
He has changed his market cart into a chariot of the sun." 

— Emerson. 

As far back as history leads us-, money 
seems to have lorded and mastered over man- 
kind ; yet not money, in itself, but the greed 
for money and the power of money. These 
have filled the pages of history with blood and 
tears, and have been the downfall of every 
great nation whose downfall is recorded. In 
dwelling upon the history of the world, and 
viewing from a point of vantage the conditions 
of today, the question, "are the earth's inhabi- 
tants intelligent, even sane?" seems difficult to 
answer in the affirmative. 

Nature has been generous beyond measure. 
All that man could wish for to sustain him the 
earth brings forth plentifully, and with little 



36 MIND AND BODY 

labor; there is everything to make glad the 
heart, yet nine-tenths of the human race are 
in misery. 

"Man's inhumanity to man 

Makes countless thousands mourn." 

The cause of all our misery and distress 
may be summed up in the above two lines ; 
the fault is nowhere chargeable but to our- 
selves, the fleshly man. And do we dare to call 
this man the image and likeness of God; this 
moving atom of dust which for centuries has 
consumed itself with the flame of selfishness? 
It would be more just and reasonable to be- 
lieve him a blind particle of matter, being 
driven through space by the whirlwind of 
error. 

But a study of the order of creation and of 
the Bible leads to a more hopeful conclusion, 
and reveals to us a promise. It somehow con- 
vinces us that there is but one law, and that 
tRis law extends through all creation, broad- 
ening in its application to each entity as it 
awakens to a higher consciousness. It is thus 
expressed by Tennyson: 



THE HIGHER LIFE 37 

"One God, one law, one element, 

And one far-off Divine event 

To which the whole creation moves." 

The disposition on the part of theologians 
to hold religion aloof from science has done 
more than anything else to keep enshrouded 
in mystery an understanding of Being. With 
religion and science battling each other, man 
has been confused and confounded. Theol- 
ogy has preached hope, unclad with reason, 
while science has preached reason, without 
hope. But the soul of man is awakening, and 
truth from both sides is leveling the barriers 
that have kept science and religion apart. The 
twentieth century finds the two clasping hands, 
and their voices in unison calling aloud the 
glad tidings of a new dawn. Flashes of light 
are now faster and faster extending above the 
horizon of this cold gray world, and the 
warmth of love and music of Divine harmony 
are swelling human hearts with gladness. The 
outer expression is giving way to the inner 
self ; the suppositional to the real ; the negative 
to the positive. Shakespeare, that greatest of 
poets, saw through the garb of materiality to 



38 MIND AND BODY 

the real and eternal, when he wrote : 

"There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st 
But in his motion like an angel sings. 
■ * *\* * * * * 

Such harmony is in immortal souls 
But whnst this muddy vesture of decay 
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it." 

This new dawn is the awakening to the 
higher life, and the putting off of "the old 
man ;" the casting aside of the finite mind, 
which knows only the fleshly self, to be gov- 
erned by the mind which unfolds to us the 
Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, 
and the promise of life eternal. The joy of 
living to those who attain to this life, the or- 
dinary mortal on the lower or physical plane 
knows little or nothing about. Those who 
attain to this life are raised to the highest 
plane in the human kingdom, and are fitting 
themselves for the kingdom higher, the spirit- 
ual kingdom, the kingdom of Heaven. 

"Ye like angels appear, 
Radiant with ardour divine. 
Beacons of hope ye appear. 
Langour is not in your heart, 
Weakness is not in your work, 
Weariness not in your brow." 

As the purpose of this part of the book Ts 
to assist those who may be desirous of attain- 



THE HIGHER LIFE 39 

ing to the higher life, it may not be amiss here 
to briefly touch upon the subject of man and 
his relation to God, for the majority appear to 
be densely ignorant in this regard. 

The great mistake lies in our 'belief that 
man is flesh and blood, and is complete now, 
only lacking in intellectual development ; that 
he has a soul in the body, which, upon his 
death, flits away to another world. We im- 
agine ourselves also to have been cast by the 
Almighty Hand upon the sea of life like a 
rudderless ship, to be tempest-tossed and buf- 
feted about by storms and vicissitudes during 
an earthly pilgrimage. 

Man is soul, born in God's image and like- 
ness, and inseparable from God. "In Him we 
live and move and have our being." Man is 
and always was complete and perfect. Imper- 
fection is a myth, for God is all. Incomplete- 
ness is simply a lack of knowledge of com- 
pleteness. The real man is enshrouded in the 
veil of materiality, and only as the light of 
truth enters his consciousness is this veil re- 
moved. The body is no part of the real self; 
it is merely a material expression of a spiritual 



40 MIND AND BODY 

entity; which is the real man, just as a figure 
on the blackboard is an expression of a char- 
acter in the science of numbers. The body is 
a part and parcel of the material universe, 
just as are the tree and the plant, and the same 
law which gives growth to the tree and plant 
gives growth to the body and to every living 
thing. All growth is from the one causation 
and according to the proper order of develop- 
ment. The body of man is governed by the 
same law as all other forms, but being the 
highest type in development, it is under a 
higher application of the law. Through 
awakening consciousness, or soul development, 
the body of man has outgrown parts of the 
law, which, however, are still governing lower 
forms. There is no suspension of the law, or 
any part of it; it extends through all creation, 
from the minutest atom to the mightiest organ- 
ism. 

The one great problem which now defies 
solution by science is to account for the fact 
of material existence. But this is an infinite, 
problem, which finite mind cannot hope to 
grasp or solve. The single acknowledgment,. 



THE HIGHER LIFE 4 1 

however, that God. is all, leaves no room for 
belief in the existence of any causation apart 
from God. 

Swedenborg tells us that "the whole natu- 
ral world corresponds to the spiritual world 
collectively and in every part, for the natural 
world exists and subsists from the spiritual 
world, just as an effect does from a cause." 

Evolution is now generally accepted by 
theologians as well as scientists, but the ma- 
jority are still studying it through the wrong 
end of the glass ; they are seeking a cause in 
effect. Evolution, primarily, is not of the 
body, but of the mind, by means of awakening 
consciousness to truth. Material evolution un- 
accompanied by thought is an utter impossi- 
bility. The outer is always an expression o£ 
the inner. Thoughts are the implements by 
which we reason, and true thoughts are awak- 
ing forces within the soul. 

But, as a matter of fact, we are in error when 
we speak of the material evolution of man, for 
mind and matter are opposites, and as the 
former expands the latter diminishes, or loses 
its expression as matter. 



42 MIND AND BODY 

"No sudden heaven, nor sudden hell for man, 

But by the will of one who knows and rules — ■ 

And utter knowledge is but utter love — 
Aeonian evolution, swift or slow, 

Through all the spheres an ever opening height, 
An ever lessening earth." 

If the doctrines of Biogenesis and Evolu- 
tion are to be accepted — and they are by the 
most eminent physiologists — then the body, 
as a collective organism, must have had its in- 
fancy as a manifestation of some lower type. 
There is no beginning half way up the lad- 
der. Besides, all forms of life began in the 
same way and are developed by the same law. 

"Oak and palm, worm and man, all start 
in life together. No matter into what strangely 
different forms they may afterward develop, 
no matter whether they are to live on sea or 
land, creep or fly, swim or walk, think or vege- 
tate, in the emDryo as it first meets the eye of 
science, they are indistinguishable."* 

"There is, indeed, a period in every tis- 
sue and every living thing kown to us, when 
there are actually no structural peculiarities 
whatever; when the whole organism consists of 
transparent, structureless, semi-fluid, living 

*Henry Drummond, "Natural Law in the Spiritual 
World." 



THE HIGHER LIFE 43 

bioplasm ; when it would not be possible to 
distinguish the growing, moving matter which 
was to evolve the oak from that which was the 
germ of a vertebrate animal/' * 

Entrance to each kingdom is through birth. 
The Adam-man was less than man before his 
birth into the human kingdom, or* before the 
birth of the soul. So must his entrance to the 
spiritual kingdom be by a new birth. 

"Marvel not that I say unto thee, ye must 
be born again. 

"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and 
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not 
tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth ; so 
is every one that is born of the spirit." — John, 
iii, 7.8. 

The Adam-Man is touched by the spirit of 
the Holy Ghost, and is born into the spiritual 
kingdom, where he begins infancy anew. 

"And so it is written, The first man Adam 
was made a living soul, the last Adam was 
made a quickening spirit." — I. Cor., xv., 45. 

What I wish most to impress upon my 
readers here is, that the mind, or soul, is the 
man, and that the body is no part of the real 

♦Lionel S. Beal, "Bioplasm." 



♦ 



44 MIND AND BODY - 

self. The passing away of the body does not af- 
fect one's life. It is like other forms which come 
in their season, grow, fade and pass away. 
Evolution to the spiritual kingdom is accom- 
panied by reincarnation and upon dissolution 
of the body after birth into the spiritual king- 
dom material expression ceases. Thus is 
physical man from "Dust to Dust." Life is 
eternal and one with God. A million years 
from now a man will be no older than he is 
today. 

Materiality is as a cloud which obscures the 
sun's rays, shutting from us the light of Truth in 
proportion to the degree of its density. The sun 
is the source of light to our planet, but as the 
earth turns on its axis we have darkness, or 
night. Nevertheless, there is no source of 
darkness, it being merely the absence of light. 
So it is with God. He is the source of all life 
and truth, the light that shineth in the dark- 
ness and is comprehended not. There is no 
source of evil, or of error; but we are appar- 
ently in the midst of them, because of the veil 
of materiality keeping from us the light of 
Truth. God. 



THE HIGHER LIFE 45 

"We are spirits clad in veils ; 

Man by man was never seen ; 
All our deep communing fails 

To remove the shadowy screen." 

Until man attained to some knowledge of 
right and wrong, to him there was neither 
truth nor error. This attainment came with 
the birth of the soul, or the Adam-man, who 
had then attained to his majority, so to speak, 
and was sent forth to work out his own salva- 
tion. Then it was that he began to reason in- 
dependently, and, being yet almost wholly in 
the dark, his conclusions were mainly wrong. 
This was the inception of errors which in time 
became apparent realities, breeding sin, sick- 
ness and all our misery. All such are the va- 
garies of an undeveloped consciousness. 
Thinking wrongly man acted wrongly, and in 
this way transgressed the divine order. This 
attainment of man to the knowledge of good 
and evil, or right and wrong, and his subse- 
quent wrong thinking and doing, is what is 
really meant by the "fall of man." 

When it is understood that evolution per- 
tains, primarily, to the mind it will be seen how 
indispensible is reincarnation to evolution in 



46 MIND AND BODY 

the material world, and it will also be seen that 
the Law of Reincarnation and the Law of Con- 
tinuity are inseparable. Everything works in 
cycles. Days come and go; so do the seasons. 
The law of coming and going runs through 
all creation, and man is governed by this law. 
Every expression of life has its allotted span of 
earthly existence ; all have their morning, 
noon and night — even material intelligence, 
and the planets themselves — and just as we 
pass from day to day, from spring to spring, 
and from birth to birth, do we pass from mil- 
lenium to millenium. 

Tablets recently discovered by scientists 
engaged in the work of excavating in the bur- 
ied city of Nippur, in Babylonia, when deciph- 
ered, according to a quoted statement of Prof. 
Herman V. Heilprecht, of the University of 
Pennsylvania, who is engaged in the task, will 
prove that in 2300 B. C. the Babylonians knew 
that the earth was a globe, and that their as- 
tronomers took the same view of celestial phe- 
nomena that we now take. 

It is true that the body of man is often cut 
down in its youth or prime, but this is also 



THE HIGHER LIFE 47 

true of vegetation and other forms. The fury 
of the elements is to the vegetable kingdom 
what sickness, disease and animal passion are 
to the animal kingdom. In fact, the fury of 
the elements and the fury of finite mind are 
analagous, for both are error expressed. 
When the elements are at rest all is serene with 
nature, and so, when the finite mind is at peace 
the body feels no ill- 
There are no new laws, no new creations ; 
all that is, was; "there is nothing new under 
the sun." What appear to us as things new 
are simply the old reappearing in new garb. 
I will not attempt any further discussion of 
the subject, my aim being merely to convey 
to the reader some scientific knowledge which 
w r ill serve as a basis upon which to reason and 
to understand the why and how of certain 
helpful suggestions advanced in the chapter 
following. 



4 8 



MIND AND BODY 



"The deepest secret of life is LOVE. Without love 
there is no enthusiasm, and without ideals there is no en- 
thusiasm. We freeze our hearts by selfishness, and stifle 
them by sordidness. We fix our eyes upon the little field 
circumscribed by our day's activities and ends. With 
no wide-reaching - affection and no uplifting' ideal, we make 
our life a treadmill and of our duty an unwelcome drudg- 
ery. We disclaim the highest endowments of the soul 
and deny our sonship to God. Narrow faiths and narrow 
hopes put fetters on the spirit, and small affections keep 
small the heart."- — Rev. Philip S. Moxom. 

"Yes, Love indeed is light from Heaven, 

A spark of that immortal fire 
With angels shared, by Allah given, 

To lift from earth our low desire. 
Devotion wafts the soul above, 
But Heaven itself descends in Love. 

A feeling from the Godhead caught, 

To wean from self each sordid thought! 

A ray of Him who formed the whole; 

A glory circling round the soul!" 

— Lord Byron. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR DAILY PRACTICE 49 



CHAPTER II. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR DAILY PRACTICE 

"Life's more than breath, and the quick sound of blood; 

'Tis a great spirit and a busy heart. 

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; 

In feelings, not in figures on a dial, 

We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives, 

Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." 

How may I attain to the higher life? 

This is the question that now presses itself 
upon the reader if he or she is desirous of at- 
taining to such life. The majority of us are 
densely ignorant as to any idea of what really 
constitutes life. Says Swedenborg: 

"Scarcely any one knows what life is. When 
one thinks about life, it seems as if it were an 
airy something of which no distinct idea is pos- 
sible. * * * God alone is life, and * * * 
His life is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom." 

Grindon says: "Literally, 'life' means 'the 
heart ;' a fact beautifully in unison with the 
great fundamental truth, alike of religion and 
philosophy, that Life is Love." 



50 MIND AND BODY 

A great many imagine that attainment to 
the higher life implies churchgoing, fasting and 
so on. But this is a mistake. One might go 
to church every day of his life and fast to the 
point of starvation without ever catching a 
glimpse of the higher life. Churchgoing can 
only assist in the degree that it inspires one to 
higher and holier effort. Effort, however, must 
be in the right direction, or its fruit will be as 
ashes to the lips. No matter how sincere 
one may be ; no matter how great his devotion, 
unless he acts in harmony with Divine Law 
all will be, must be, in vain. Those who are 
attending church services and uttering long 
prayers, with only the view of fitting them- 
selves for entrance to the Kingdom, are doomed 
to a troubled awakening. Life eternal is to 
know. 

"And utter knowledge is but utter love." 

The kingdom of heaven is not a far-off lo- 
cality to go to, but instead it is a condition 
each must grow to. 

"Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo 
there ! for, behold, the Kingdom of God is 
within you." — Luke xvii., 21. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR DAILY PRACTICE 5 1 

Within the heart of an acorn is the germ of 
a mighty oak; and just so within the heart of 
your consciousness is the germ of everlasting 
life. No more can this germ of everlasting 
life awaken and shine forth from its cell with- 
out proper nourishment than can that of the 
oak, and the nourishment for this germ of life 
is love and good works. 

Your efforts must be free from selfishness 
and selfish considerations. While they are in 
your own behalf only, you are not loving oth- 
ers as yourself. You are attempting the so- 
lution of a problem without applying the rule 
governing it; for Life Eternal is a problem 
which must be worked out by the Golden Rule. 

As in the case of the pupil at school, or the 
successful business man, discipline has a great 
deal to do with one's success in this direction; 
and in this chapter I will suggest a few simple 
rules by which you can readily bring yourself 
into harmony with the law, making the task at 
once a labor of love, and bringing unexpected 
happiness into your life. 

It may be well here to add a few lines more 
relative to the finite mind, which will serve as 



52 MIND AND BODY 

a sort of life-buoy to you, in case you en- 
counter unlooked for opposition upon the part 
of your finite mind. 

This mind, or law of the flesh, is incompe- 
tent to attain to, or rather is to a great extent 
outgrown with, the higher life. However, 
while it rules in us, we are as it insists we are, 
sick or well, sad or happy, free or in bondage. 
"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." 
Until we come into the consciousness of a 
higher law, there seems to be no appeal from 
this lower law, and often it rules with an iron 
hand, so to speak. But when consciousness of 
a higher law dawns upon us, we at once begin- 
to appeal to it against what seem the unright- 
eous verdicts of the lower, and just as a higher 
court sets aside the unjust verdicts of a lower 
court, so does this higher mind set aside the 
verdicts of the lower, and "set the captive 
free." 

Following this awakening, there is, in 
many cases, a continual clash of authority, and 
no peace prevails until the law of the flesh is 
completely overcome, this depending largely 
upon the temperament of the person. Some 



SUGGESTIONS FOR DAILY PRACTICE 53 

people are methodical in overcoming injustice 
to themselves, whole others are rebellious. 
The latter, in this process as well as in other 
things, never succeed as well as the former. 
The battle is really between two spiritual 
forces or governments, those of the higher and 
the lower self, and not between the body and 
some inunderstandable something we term sin, 
sickness, pain, pleasure or appetite. 

Of this finite mind, or law of the flesh, 
Paul thus speaks : 

"I find then a law, that when I would do 
good, evil is present with me. 

"For I delight in the law of God after the 
inward man : 

"But I see another law in my members, 
warring against the law of my mind, and 
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, 
which is in my members." — Rom., vii., 21, 
22, 23. 

The law of the flesh cannot be contemptu- 
ously cast aside ; it must be outgrown. There 
are many who, when they catch a glimpse of 
the higher life, at once begin an unceasing war 
upon the lower self, and as a result bring 
about what is termed by some mental scien- 
tists, "chemicalization," or an uprising of the 



54 MIND AND BODY 

baser self as a result of a sudden and relentless 
inpour of the higher influences. This should 
be avoided, as it brings about distressed men- 
tal and bodily conditions, and does not help 
growth in the least, but rather retards it, and 
those who do not understand the cause are at 
once liable to resign themselves again to the 
demands of the finite mind or the appetites of 
the flesh, thereby making- themselves greater 
slaves than before. 

It is most important, first of all, to under- 
stand that we need take no thought for the 
body; that the same law which clothes and 
gives growth to the lily will look to that, and 
that by taking thought for it we are doing the 
very thing that most injures it. But what 
we do need to take heed in regard to is, the 
quality of our thoughts, and words, and deeds. 
These are what make or unmake us. The 
standard of our thoughts, words and deeds 
is the standard of our manhood. We can 
never go any higher than our thoughts carry 
us ; we are on a level with them always. It 
has been the custom to look after the body, 
believing that a sound body makes a sound 



SUGGESTIONS FOR DAILY PRACTICE 55 

mind. Reverse this order, and take no 
thought for the body, but aim to improve the 
mind. 

Next, before there can be any advance- 
ment, there must be perfect peace of mind. 
Peace is from within ; it is within the soul, 
and there one must seek it if he would find it. 
All the wealth of the world if laid at your 
feet, cannot of itself give you one moment's 
peace. There are men and women today 
whose wealth is sufficient to give them their 
heart's desires, in a material sense, and all 
such they may be said to indulge in ; yet their 
lives are little more than a living death. The 
reason is, they are seeking peace and happi- 
ness in the world without, where it is not, in- 
stead of within their inmost consciousness 
where lie dormant the germs of true life, love, 
peace, happiness and wisdom. 

"Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast 
shut thy door pray to thy Father, which is in 
secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret 
shall reward thee openly. " — Matt, vi., 6. 

"Thy closet" is the sanctuary of your soul, 
your inner self, your inmost consciousness. 



5^' MIND AND BODY 

Retire to your room or to a place where 
you will be alone, every day; seat yourself in 
a restful position and, shutting out from your 
mind all affairs of the day or the morrow, give 
yourself up to meditation on the Most High. 
Know that you can have neither life nor in- 
telligence apart from God, and that the great- 
est wisdom, the highest love exhibited by man, 
is simply the greatest expression of God with- 
in man. In Jesus of Nazareth was expressed 
more of the Father, the Divine Principle of 
life and love, than in any other man the world 
has ever known. Try to feel that the body is 
no part of your real self; that the mind, or soul, 
is all, and that that can only grow and de- 
velop through awakening consciousness to 
truth. Mere existence is not life. Life eter- 
nal is to know, not to live. There in the 
silence draw close about you the mantle of 
peace and love, forgiving your enemies and 
forgetting petty annoyances. In this way the 
divine germ within you is watered and nour- 
ished, and in time will develop into a beau- 
tiful fountain of everlasting life, from which 
others will drink the living water. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR DAILY PRACTICE 57 

"I searched for God with heart-throbs of despair, 
'Neath ocean's bed, above the vaulted sky; 

At last I searched myself — my inmost I — 
And found Him there." 

Each period of meditation should be for not 
less than thirty minutes, and should be posi- 
tively undisturbed. Choose the most conven- 
ient time ; but those who are in a position to 
thus apply themselves at the same hour daily 
may find it to some advantage. 

Then when you retire at night leave behind 
you, as well, all affairs of the day, and banish 
all thoughts of the morrow. Relax your body, 
that is, let it rest dead weight, so to speak, 
and with peace and love in your heart, close 
your eyes for sleep. Feel that you are rest- 
ing securely in the arms of the Divine Love, 
and that no harm can come nigh you. 

"For it is only the finite that has wrought 
and suffered ; the infinite lies stretched in 
smiling repose." 

It is the finite mind that worries, and troub- 
les and pains, producing ill effects upon the 
body. When you relax the body, with love 
and peace in your heart, the finite mind is set 
at naught and the Divine Mind shines forth as 
the sun from behind a cloud, nourishing the 



5'8 MIND AND JiODY 

germ of life and regenerating the body. Your 
sleep will be most restful, and your dreams, 
if any, beautiful and refreshing. 

If you will practice this for even a short 
time, no matter how great the obstacles that 
seem to beset your path, you will be surprised 
and delighted at the change that will take 
place. It will be almost as a sudden transfor- 
mation scene, each succeeding day growing 
brighter and happier to you, a new world be- 
ing born to you each morning. Your eyes 
will become bright, your complexion fresh, 
and your whole body regenerated. Your diffi- 
culties will untangle themselves, and you will 
soon find yourself in love with and loved by 
all the world. Not only will all these bless- 
ings come to you, but you will also gradually 
come into a truer understanding of all things, 
and be a competent judge of art in its different 
forms. You will become wise, not after the 
bookish sort, but instead your knowledge will 
so far transcend mere letters that the most 
book-learned will fail to interest you, for the 
reason that you will not be receiving your 
knowledge second-hand and adulterated, but 



SUGGESTIONS FOR DAILY PRACTICE 59 

instead, direct from the source of all wisdom, 
the All Wise. 

Love leads to a scientific understanding of 

all life's problems ; it banishes all discordant 
notes, all repellant sounds ; its glow quickens 
the mortal body and illumines the mind with 
understanding. 

Remember, it is no use to attempt the 
methods here outlined unless you first make 
up your mind to forgive and forget the griev- 
ances and petty annoyances you may have en- 
gendered. You may feel that you cannot 
forgive such and such persons for the way 
they have treated you, but you can if you re- 
ally wish to. What a miserable life is that of 
an unforgiving person, seeking revenge, and 
going about with a feeling of malice and hate. 
It is no real life at all; it is only a contempt- 
ible existence, a living death. 

Just for a moment consider that it rests 
with yourself how great or how little you are ; 
for true greatness is not measured by dollars 
and cents, neither by brains or position. You 
may have little of the world's goods, small 
learning and few talents; but with the love of 



6o MIND AND BODY 

Love and the love of Truth in your heart you 
are at once greater than the greatest king or 
the greatest queen whose life is spent in idle 
luxury, and whose better self is blinded by the 
dazzle of pomp and position. If the person 
who mortally offended you had a well devel- 
oped consciousness of right, he or she would 
not have done so ; for remember that right 
thinking and right doing are only a question of 
soul development. By revenge or retaliation 
you are placing yourself on a ^ level with the 
offender, while by forgiving and forgetting you 
are exalting yourself above him. Which do 
you desire, to lower yourself or to exalt your- 
self? Assert your manhood or womanhood, 
and choose the latter. Remember, "With 
what measure you mete it shall be measured 
to you again." By holding malice toward a 
person, you are destroying your own happi- 
ness and peace of mina, but on the other hand, 
forgive the person who has done you a wrong, 
and from your heart tell him or her that life 
is too short to cherish ill feelings in, and you 
wish the past to be forgotten and to be friends. 
On that very moment you make out of an en- 



SUGGESTIONS FOR DAILY PRACTICE 6l 

emy one of the staunchest friends you will 
ever know in life, and not only are you then 
and there relieved of the oppressive burden of 
malice, but your heart is filled with a love that 
radiates through your whole person, giving 
you both health and happiness. You have been 
generous, and your reward is fully as gener- 
ous. How thoroughly scientific was that say- 
ing-of the Master, "With what measure you 
mete it shall be measured to you again." 

With some the power of meditation or con- 
centration of thought is much easier than with 
others ; so should you not succeed very well 
in the first few attempts, do not become dis- 
couraged, or feel that there is "nothing in it*" 
These suggestions are along scientific lines, 
and only need to be put into practice to bring 
results. Advancement is never made without 
some effort, and your reward in this instance 
will be well worth the most patient endeavor. 

If through any condition of circumstances 
you cannot give half an hour daily to medita- 
tion, put into practice the relaxing of the 
body and the immediate surrender of yourself 
upon retiring each night. This alone will 
bring about a great change. 



62 MIND AND BODY 



CHAPTER III. 

SOME HELPFUL HINTS. 

Learn to love poetry and music, and culti- 
vate harmony in its different forms. There 
are a great many people who frankly admit a 
lack of appreciation in themselves for poetry. 
This frankness is, in itself, not to be con- 
demned, but the fact which prompts it is much 
to be deprecated. Such people should culti- 
vate a taste for poetry, beginning by reading 
the more simple verses. This will in a short 
time create a wholesome appetite for and love 
of the beautiful in literature, and gradually 
produce harmony of expression, which will 
reflect itself outwardly in a multitude of ways. 
What the human soul is famishing for most 
today is peace and harmony. As we pass 
along the streets of our cities, the worried ex- 
pressions we see upon the thousands of faces 
tell all too plainly the kind of life they are 
living. 



SOME HELPFUL HINTS 63 

Avoid both hurry and worry, and do not 
allow disorder to enter your daily affairs. Dis- 
order breeds discord and confusion, and dis- 
aster is the inevitable result. By hurry and 
worry you are only shortening your earthly 
days, getting everything pertaining to your 
affairs into confusion, and making life a 
burden not only for yourself, but for others 
as well. You are a violator of God's law 
every time you become refractory or discord- 
ant, and there is no escape from punishment 
for such. The best guarantee of success on 
the morrow is to live well today. Try to 
heed the Master's saying: "Take no thought 
for the things of tomorrow, for tomorrow will 
take care for the things of itself." 

Do not try to crowd two days' work into 
one, but do a reasonable day's work within 
reasonable hours, and when it is done, take 
no anxious thought for the things ahead. In 
this way your mind will become clear and your 
thoughts regular and harmonious, making 
keener your perception, and thus doubling 
your capacity in many ways without extra 
effort. 



64 MIND AND BODY 

Do not allow yourself to fall a victim to 
the notion that you are of better flesh and 
blood, or that you have a better right to ex- 
istence, than others who may happen to be 
less fortunate in having acquired a share of the 
world's goods, or whose intellectual faculties 
are less developed. "The dirtiest beggar on 
the street, the most vicious criminal, as well as 
the greatest king or queen in the world, is my- 
self and yourself, for there is no distinction 
between one human being and another in the 
fundamental principle which constitutes a 
human being, and which is the Universal 
Man, the terrestrial Adam, and the celestial 
Christ." 

"What though we wade in wealth or soar in fame ! 
Earth's highest station ends in, 'Here he lies ;' 
And 'Dust to Dust' concludes her noblest song." 

As society is at present constituted, money 
is a necessity ; but be careful not to allow 
your ambition for wealth to get the better of 
your manhood. Might is not right, but right 
is might; and with a noble purpose, a clear 
conscience, and an intellect born of a sincere 
desire for truth, you are at once a power which 



SOME HELPFUL HINTS 65 

must eventually be felt in whatever direc- 
tion you concentrate your force. 

Do not stultify your conscience by pretend- 
ing to think so much of this person or that 
person, when in your heart you know you care 
little or nothing about them. Be honest with 
yourself ; you do not deceive these people any- 
way, however much you may think so; and in 
the end you are almost certain to be at en- 
mity with them. Learn to think of every hu- 
man being as your rightful brother or sister. 
Do not feel that to favor one means that you 
are against another. If there were more hon- 
esty there would be less need for sympathy. 
Also remember that you can not make another 
person truly happy by any act or service which 
causes yourself to feel discordant, and any 
service you tender, unless it is consistent with 
your thoughts, unless it is a pleasure instead 
of an annoyance, will surely fall short of its 
mark; for that invisible tie which binds to- 
gether the whole human family receives a jar 
every time the heart and hand are disunited. 



66 MIND AND BODY 

It tells the truth plainer than words can, and 
instead of welding a bond of friendship be- 
tween the giver and the recipient, it divides 
them. 

Do not be too ready to express sympathy 
either by word or deed. If your heart bids 
you perform some kind act, do so ; but sympa- 
thizing words are often more distressing than 
soothing. No man wishes to feel less than a 
man, and sympathizing words from another 
often make the sufferer feel much like a "thing." 
Suppose a person does suffer a heavy blow, 
either through bereavement or disaster, will 
it improve his condition to approach him with 
a long face — half the time hypocritically as- 
sumed — and shaking his hand tell him how 
sorry you are that he suffered so? Wouldn't 
it be better to salute him in a cheerful man- 
ner and remark, without too much earnest- 
ness, "I was touched (or chagrined, as best 
suits) to hear about your misfortune, but 
such things, I suppose, are meant to try a 
man's metal." Then have something to say 
on other topics. When you leave him, if he 



SOME HELPFUL HINTS 67 

had any metal in him you will have strength- 
ened it and he will think the more of you. 
This is often the surest way to put a man back 
on his feet. 

Be independent, but bear in mind that in- 
dependence does not in the least imply inso- 
lence, nor snobbishness. Practice affability 
and courtesy, caring for every one in general, 
but bowing down to no one in particular. 
Never be guilty of contempt for a person be- 
cause of his or her station or dress. Human 
nature is the same in the hovel and palace. The 
girl whose work is confined to the veriest 
drudgery is swayed by the same hopes, fears, 
doubts and emotions as the fairest lady who 
ever graced a palace; and neither king, priest 
nor president, as an individual, is entitled to 
one jot more courtesy and respect than the 
honest servant girl or the laboring man. 

Keep your mind off your bodily food, and 
remember that good health depends more up- 
on what you think than what you eat. So 



68 MIND AND BODY 

long as you imagine that your health depends 
upon certain kinds of food, you remain a slave 
to matter. Also remember that there is noth- 
ing more conducive to good health and peace 
of mind than to attend to your own affairs, 
and refrain from meddling in other people's 
where you have no concern. 

No matter what appearances may be, re- 
fuse to entertain even for a moment any curi- 
osity about the domestic affairs of your ac- 
quaintances. Refuse audience to a gossip by 
at once turning the conversation. Such are 
more to be shunned than the sufferer from 
small pox, for gossipping is a disease in itself 
more deadly than any type of physical afflic- 
tion. It not only ruins the gossipper's own 
happiness and peace of mind, but the happiness 
of others as well. 

Know that there is an inexhaustible source 
of power and intelligence from which you may 
ever draw ; but know, also that on the other hand, 
there is no source of weakness or ignorance. 
The latter are simply the absence of the for- 
mer. When you come to an understanding 



SOME HELPFUL HINTS 69 

of this truth, and aim only at that which is 
noble and good, the problems of life will begin 
at once to unravel themselves, and the most 
difficult questions will become as clear to your 
mental vision as the noon-day sun. A solu- 
tion of all social and industrial problems is 
embedded in the Golden Rule; and those pro- 
fessors, clergy and others who are writing 
cumbrous volumes on sociology, endeavor- 
ing through some roundabout, mystical way, 
to account for and offer a remedy for evil con- 
ditions, at once suggest the Scribes and Phar- 
isees, who embroidered their garments and 
loved the uppermost seats in the temple. They 
wish more than anything else to be seen and 
heard of men. Being more willing to 
serve Mammon than God for a while longer, 
they blind themselves to this simple rule of the 
lowly Nazarene, and, like the silly ostrich that 
sticks its head in the sand to avoid being 
seen, they imagine they are concealing their 
shallow souls behind a display of man-made 
authority and literary verbosity. 



JO MIND AND BODY 

The following poems have been specially 
selected as inspiring and helpful. Read every 
day for a time these and other similar poems. 

"Such songs have power to quiet 

The restless pulse of care, 
And come like the benediction 
That follows after prayer." 



SELECTED POEMS. J\ 



CHAPTER IV. 

SELECTED POEMS. 

LOVE MUCH. 

BY ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. 

Love much. Earth has enough of bitter in it; 

Cast sweets into the cup whene'er you can. 
No heart so hard but love at last may win it. 

Love is the grand primeval cause of man; 

All hate is foreign to the first great plan. 

Love much. Men's souls contract with cold sus- 
picion. 

Shine on them with warm love and they expand. 
Tis love, not creeds, that from a low condition 

Leads mankind up to heights supreme and grand. 

Oh, that the world would see and understand! 

Love much. There is no waste in freely giving; 
More blessed it is, even than to receive. 

He who loves much alone finds life worth living; 
Love on through doubt and darkness, and believe 
There is no thing which love may not achieve. 



"I'm sorry that I spelt the word, 

I hate to go above you, 
Because" — the brown eyes lower fell— 

"Because, you see, I love you!" 

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER, 



/2 MIND AND BODY 



A COTTAGE PORTRAIT, 

BY CLARENCE A. BTJSKIRK.' 

Within my humble hall there hangs against the wall 
A fairer flower than summer garlands show, — 

A beautiful old face whose gentleness and grace 
Beam forth like winter flowers beside the snow. 

How calm the light which lies within those dear old 
eyes, 

How noble the sweet patience of that brow; 

Those furrows which the years wore deep with many 

tears, 

Ah, how serene beneath life's sunset now! 

As on that face I gaze, my fancy seeks the days, 
Long vanished, which her laughing girlhood knew; 

I see the well-sweep move she oft has told me of, 
And forest paths her bare feet rambled through. 

And then my fancy strays to those romantic days 
When maidenhood built castles in the air, 

And saw in bright day-dreams idyllic vales and 
streams, 
Where dwelt no sordid souls, and all was fair. 

Is all that now remains of years of joys and pains 
But pictured in that face upon the wall? 

Do all our lives then bloom so nigh the fatal tomb, 
In its dumb darkness to extinguish' all? 

Is earth a prison cell where only convicts dwell, 
To a sure doom thence to be led away? 

Nay, life is not a breath chilled by the touch of death, 
And Love and Truth are not the serfs of clay. 



SELECTED POEMS 73 

Our Father-Mother God is not some Jove whose nod 

Is wrathful — a fierce giant man above; 
God's children are we all, and, whatso'er befall, 

Elysian is our fate, for God is Love. 

Constant and faithful friend, within these lines I send 
My greeting to thee, whereso'er thou art; 

For, like a thornless rose, thy lovely memory grows 
And blossoms at the gateway to my heart. 



WHAT IS TRUE ART? 

BY JENNIE TOERILL RUPRECIIT. 

What is true art? Fond poet, canst thou tell 

The secret unto one not overwise? 
This is thy answer, if I hear thee well, 

That 1 must nearer climb to paradise, 
And calmly wait, and list with spirit-ear 

Till God doth speak, as He doth speak to heart, 
And then with pen inspired make sweetly clear 

To others what He spake. This is true art. 

What is true art? Fair limner, canst thou tell? 

Is it in faultless copy thou hast wrought 
Of God's great works? Nay; if I hear thee well, 

It is the beauty one perceives untaught, 
And with it makes the duller see and know 

True beauty wheresoe'er it forms a part, 
And helps him sketch Life's lines from vale below 

Up to the mountain height. This is true art. 

What is true art? Sweet song-bird, canst thou tell? 

All taught of God thy wondrous hymn of praise? 
This is thy answer, if I hear thee well: 

"Go, listen thou where hope doth sing always 



74 MIND AND BODY 

Her song of gladness, every note God-given, 

And which He planned to cheer the stricken heart, 

And fill it with the melody of heaven; 

Then search no more, for thou hast found true art." 

What is true art? Deft sculptor, canst thou tell? 

Is it in pulseless statue cold and dead, • 
That breathes no love? Nay; if I hear thee well, 

'Tis something wrought in real man instead, 
Chiseled by various trials keen, until 

He nobly stands perfect in every part 
Of Christian stature, as his God doth will, 

A Christ-like and transcendent work of art. 



THE THINGS YOU LEAVE UNDONE. 

BY MARGARET ELIZABETH SANGSTER. 

It isn't the thing you do, dear, 

It's the thing you leave undone, 
That gives you a bit of heartache 

At the setting of the sun. 
The tender word forgotten, 

The letter you did not write, 
The flower you did not send, dear, 

Are your haunting ghosts at night. 

The stone you might have lifted 

Out of a brother's way; 
The bit of heartsome counsel 

You were hurried too much to say; 
The loving touch of the hand, dear, 

The gentle, winning tone, 



SELECTED POEMS 75 

Which you had no time nor thought for, 
With troubles enough of your own. 

For life is all too short, dear, 

And sorrow is all too great, 
To suffer our slow compassion, 

That tarries until too late; 
And it isn't the thing you do, dear, 

It's the thing you leave undone, 
Which gives you a bit of heartache, 

At the setting of the sun. 



WHAT'S BETTER, 

BY LEIGH HUNT. 

Better to have the love of one 
Than smiles like morning dew; 
Better to have a living seed 
Than flowers of every hue. 

Better to feel a love within 
Than be lovely to the sight; 
Better a homely tenderness 
Than beauty's wild delight. 

Better to love than be beloved, 
Though lonely all the day; 
Better the fountain in the heart 
Than the fountain by the way. 

Better the thanks of one dear heart 
Than a nation's voice of praise; 
Better the twilight ere the dawn 
Than yesterday's mid-blaze. 



j6 MIND AND BODY 



VOICES OF THE PAST. 

BY JOHN COLLINS. 

A moan of anguish, as a requiem solemn, 

Rolls thro' the lapse of centuries dimmed and gone, 

Telling, by ruined wall and fallen column, 

The wreck of empires since Time's earliest dawn. 

Prom old Assyrian scattered piles and temples, 
From tombs of kings on Egypt's river shore, 

Engraved with names of conquerors, examples 
Of the vile tyranny and waste of war; 

Prom Afric's torrid realms, Numidian mountains, 

Arabia's desert, trackless as the sea, 
Or India's jungles and her sunny fountains, 

Comes up a fearful cry of agony. 

That sound is ringing down successive ages 

From western lands, by plain, and rock, and flood, 

As History weeps upon the blood-stained pages 
She fain would fill with records pure and good. 

Hear the deep groans, the burning imprecations, 
Of spirits torn from tenements of clay, 

The chorused voices of the murdered nations, 
Like forest leaves by whirlwinds swept away. 

The myriads cry in wakening tones of thunder, 
"O Man! the direst foe of humankind! 

How long wilt thou the bonds of nation sunder, 
Deaf to all mercy and to pity blind? 

Cursed be the greed of wealth — the lust of glory, 
The thirst insatiate for extended sway 



SELECTED POEMS J J 

Of tyrants, known in fading ancient story, 
Of warring princes of a later day! 

How long shall man defile with blood fraternal 

This his fair home where peace alone should dwell? 

How long shall demons greet with joy infernal 
The clash of arms and the fierce battle yell? 

Heed the past lesson! Say to future ages 

A nation's glory is in arts of peace! 
Let poets, statesmen, orators and sages 

Their adulation of the warrior cease. 

Pass onward in your high and holy mission, 
Friends of a cause that shall not know defeat; 

There must be toil, but there shall be fruition 
When armies lay their war drums at your feet." 



THE FARMER'S WIFE. 

THOMAS BURNETT. 

A good wife rose from her bed one morn 

And thought with a nervous dread, 
Of the piles of clothes to be washed, and more 

Than a dozen mouths to be fed. 
There's the meals to get for the men in the field, 

And the children to fix away 
To school; and the milk to be skimmed and churned 

And all to be done this day. 

It had rained in the night and all the wood 

Was wet as it could be; 
There were puddings and pies to bake, besides 

A loaf of cake for tea. 
And the day was hot and her aching brow 
I n c C 



7§ MIND AND BODY 

Throbbed wearily as she said: 
"If maidens but knew what good wives know, 

They would be in no haste to wed!" 

* * * * * * 

"Jennie, what do you think I told Ben Brown?" 

Called the farmer from the well; 
And a flush crept up to his bronzed brow, 

And his eyes half bashfully fell. 
"It was this," he said, and coming near, 

He smiled, and, stooping down, 
Kissed her cheek — " 'Twas this : That you were the best 

And dearest wife in town!" 

The farmer went back to the field, and the wife, 

In a smiling and absent way, 
Sang snatches of tender little songs 

She'd not sung for many a day. 
And the pain in her head was gone, and the clothes 

Were as white as the foam of the sea; 
Her bread was light and her butter was sweet, 

And as golden as it could be. 

"Just think," the children all called in a breath — 

"Tom Wood has run off to sea! 
"He wouldn't, we know, if he only had 

As happy a home as we." 
The night came down and the good wife smiled 

To herself as she softly said: 
" 'Tis so sweet to labor for those we love, 

It's no wonder that maids will wed!" 



